I’ve spent a lot of time wiping butts around here over the last 13 months. And every time I do, I use two things: 1. a Diaper. 2. Diaper wipes. Based on that extensive experience (ha), I’m going to be reviewing the various brands of those items I’ve been using, from both a functionality perspective as well as an eco-cred perspective. First on the list: Wipes.

Huggies wipes:

Functionality: Good. The wipes are thick, meaning you can clean up a baby’s butt fairly easily without having the wipe bunch up on you or make the mess worse. The wipes have a smooth finish which makes it easy to slide it across the baby’s butt. All Huggies wipes are scented, which I’m not fond of. The wipes container is resealable which does a great job at keeping the wipes moist, but it means that if you want to carry wipes with you you do need to move them to a different container as it’s too big to be conveniently portable.

Eco-cred: Low. They come in a hard plastic container (although you can buy refills in a plastic bag and reuse the container). The wipes themselves are made from cellulose (a wood based fiber) and polypropylene (petroleum-based plastic) and are moistened with water and synthetic cleaning agents. The wipes are non-recyclable and non-biodegradable (while they do say the wipes will “begin to break down over a long period of time“, the vagueness of this claim tells me they won’t biodegrade appreciably anytime soon.) The plastic box and refill bag are both recyclable where facilities exist.

Functionality: good. They are not as thick as the Huggies wipes, but they’re still pretty good and don’t bunch up very easily. Unscented. The packaging is soft and flexible, so the good news about this is that you can chuck the wipes in to your purse. The closure on the package (it’s just sticky stuff that you peel off and press back on) does get kind of gummed up and doesn’t close as well after a while, so I often chuck the entire package into a used ziploc bag to carry them around in my purse, just to keep everything dry.

Eco-cred: Moderate, and trying to be better. The wipes are made from biodegradable viscose from sustainably managed forests and are compostable, and the packaging is transitioning – I saw references to the old packaging being chalk-based; Nature Babycare states that the new packaging is in fact biodegradable. The wipes are moistened with water and many organic moisturizers. There are also some chemical preservatives in the wipes including phenoxyethanol. As a disposable product, these wipes have a one-way trip from manufacture to disposal thus requiring you to use a new wipe every time. While this practice is definitely higher eco-impact, I like what this company is trying to get at: The market for disposable products is huge and will never go away, so let’s try to make a disposable product that’s as eco-friendly as possible and that will lessen the impact overall. (Although, some of these wipes have found their way in to the washing machine around here and they come out fully intact and actually reusable. Wouldn’t recommend it as a practice, obviously, but it’s interesting.) These wipes are what we use when we’re out or travelling – I bought a big box in bulk to save on shipping costs and keep them stored for whenever we need them.

Summary: A good wipe with functional packaging that’s trying to be more planet-friendly. A great choice if disposable is the only way you want (or need) to go.

Cloth wipes

Functionality: excellent. In terms of cleaning up messes, using cloth wipes beats any other wipe hands down. The thickness, absorbency and size of the cloth means that even the most explosive diaper mess can be cleaned up rapidly, without getting any of the offending substance all over your hands. For use at Casa ecochick, I have about 25 Bamboobino baby washcloths to use as diaper wipes. (I liked the softness of the bamboo cloths, as well as the eco-friendliness of bamboo. Also, bamboo cloth is reputed to have natural anti-bacterial properties, which I liked since the cloths were going to be wet at all times and thus prone to growing things.) I keep them moist in a container and handy at all times.

Downsides: Effort. Cloth wipes do need to be washed, obviously. If you cloth diaper, the wipes can be washed with the diaper loads. If you do not, you can do individual wipes loads as required – around here we run out of diapers and wipes about every second day. I consider washing diapers and wipes very low effort – throw them in the washer, throw them in the dryer or on the drying rack, stuff and done, taking up about 10 minutes of effort total from me. For the wipes, I simply take the cloths from the washer, fold them into a large container (I use a ziploc container), add a little more water and perhaps a few drops of lavender oil (which is meant to have skin-soothing properties, as well as keeping the wipes smelling nice), put the lid on and voila.

These wipes do discolor and stain after a while, particularly once your child starts eating solids like blueberries. Stains don’t bother me in the least, but if they bother you, a soak in Oxyclean would probably do the trick.

Eco-cred: High. While the manufacturing process of bamboo, cotton or polyester fabric is high impact, the reusability means that the landfill impact is lessened exponentially. Water and electricity usage to wash the wipes should be considered, and remember that the wipes do not need to be dried in the dryer or otherwise since they will be remaining wet so that energy hog isn’t an issue.

Price: Bamboobino washcloths–5 for $14 at Bamboobino.com (also available at many other retailers) or for a less expensive alternative try Piccolo Bambino poly-cotton blend washcloths — 12 for $6.99 at Babies R’Us and other retailers.

A word on price: Even if you go with the expensive bamboo washcloths, you’re coming out way head in the long run. An outlay of $70 for 25 bamboo washcloths costs roughly the same as one box plus seven refills of Huggies wipes, which (assuming use of one package of 70/week) would take you through about three months of diapers. You can see how using disposables would add up. I’ve been using our cloth wipes for 13 months and they are still holding up extremely well; I don’t foresee having to replace them at all while my child is in diapers. Even adding in the cost of laundering and soap, by using cloth you’re coming out way ahead financially through the lifetime of diapering your child.

Summary: Cloth is by far the best butt-wiper, the best option for your wallet, and the best option for the planet.Disclaimer: All products reviewed in this post were purchased by me. No products were provided for review by any company.

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7 Comments on Baby wipes: The good, the bad, and the eco-friendly

Anonymous

August 31, 2010 at 11:44 pm (8 years ago)

I like the idea of cloth, and have used it for one of my older kids. But now with 3 kids, I find that I have more laundry than time so I find myself in denial of the 2nd hand cloth diapers which sit in my baby’s closet. So, admittedly, I’m using Huggies-type wipes. But I’ll tell you that I’m quite frugal with them. I used to live in a developing country and learned how to reduce my consumption of most imported items! I find that i only use 1-2 wipes per nasty diaper, and on a wet diaper, I either use none or a half of one. Our baby is 6 months old & I still haven’t finished the pack of refills from our original purchase of 144. If people end up using the Huggies-type, they can do so with moderation. Erin

All of these disposable baby stuff. Isn’t those bad for the environment? Where does all those disposed diapers and wipes go? Even if they are eco-friendly still the materials used to make them comes from nature. Cleaning isn’t too hard. Just use cloth then wash it then use it again.

Anonymous

November 5, 2012 at 8:55 pm (6 years ago)

I have used Bum Boosa baby wipes. Bum Boosa Bamboo Baby Wipes are a unique, 100% bio-friendly product that was developed with both the planet and infants’ sensitive skin in mind. Their mission is to provide a new option for a widespread consumer product that, through its use, trees and water are saved. They are able to do this by drawing on the benefits of a bountiful, regenerative and sustainable plant for our alternative nonwoven fiber: bamboo.Bum Boosa aims to consciously care for consumers and the planet by making eco-friendly baby wipes with the promise of high quality natural ingredients, honesty and integrity. To that end, for each package sold, Bum Boosa plants a tree with Trees for the Future. This is the Bum Boosa website: http://www.bumboosa.comHope to help you ~